Alabama to seat Texas fans, band exclusively in upper deck of Bryant-Denny Stadium

Alabama and Texas may not be SEC rivals yet, but the pettiness is at a high entering the second of their home-and-home matchups on Saturday.

Last season, the Longhorns hosted the Crimson Tide in a thriller, but the Alabama band was notably missing from the event. That’s because Texas would’ve forced them to sit in the upper deck, so Alabama decided against sending their band.

Well, the Crimson Tide are taking a page out of the Longhorns book, as Texas is coming to Tuscaloosa on Saturday for this season’s iteration of the game.

“Texas isn’t in the SEC just yet, which means the SEC’s regulation for tickets for visitors doesn’t apply for the Alabama football matchup vs. the Longhorns this week at Bryant-Denny Stadium,” wrote Nick Kelly of The Tuscaloosa News. “So, the Crimson Tide doesn’t have to meet the SEC requirement of at least 2,000 visiting tickets located in the lower level of the stadium. And Alabama won’t.

“All 5,000 visitor tickets, which include seats for the band, will be in the upper deck.”

Alabama is simply returning the favor, at least that’s how Crimson Tide Athletics Director Greg Byrne sees it.

“We are able to reciprocate a similar seating arrangement to what we had last year in Austin,” Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News.

Hey, you can’t blame Alabama for the decision. Treating Texas the way they were treated last season. If the game is as good on the field as the pettiness is off of it, we’re in for another treat on Saturday.

Nick Saban previews Alabama vs Texas game, compliments their offensive weapons

Alabama passed their first test of the season with flying colors, but head coach Nick Saban knows a much tougher task awaits this weekend vs. Texas. 

At his Monday press conference, Coach Saban opened with some complimentary comments towards the Longhorn program and their coach, Steve Sarkisian. It’s fair to say the Crimson Tide headman was impressed by the UT victory over Rice. 

“Texas, I think everybody knows Sark is a really good coach. They’ve got a really good team, they’ve got a veteran team returning with 10 starters on offense, six on defense,” reviewed Saban of Texas, emphasizing their offensive firepower.

“Really good skill players on offense, really good quarterback who can throw the ball effectively. They can make a lot of explosive plays. You know, (Xavier) Worthy is an outstanding receiver. They’ve got really good running backs, really good tight ends.”

Like Nick Saban’s own teams, physicality and strong defensive play are traits for the Longhorns. 

“They’re very good on defense. They play really good up front. They’re physical, they played extremely well in the first game and they were excellent on special teams.”

The Alabama coach is excited just to get to see how his own guys react in such a competitive contest. 

“So this is a really good team all the way around and it’s going to be an opportunity for our team to sort of see: Where are we as a team? Where are you as a player? You’re going to play against a really good player. And this is going to be a good barometer for us to find out.”